Teen Dies in Alcohol-Related Crash Rowan County

According to N.C. State Highway Patrol, alcohol and speeding contributed to a fatal wreck in western Rowan County last Saturday morning. Troopers said that Marc Payette, 17, was passing a car on Centenary Church Road at about 3 a.m. and tried to get back into his lane too soon, clipping another car.

Marc Payette was from Salisbury, North Carolina (N.C.). The victim crashed into a tree while he was speeding. Payette was pronounced dead at the scene and there were no passengers in the vehicle with him at the time of the crash. Evidently, this was an alcohol related crash according to Troopers who were at the scene.

Tragedy somehow strikes harder when the victim is so young as in the case of Marc Payette. Although are thoughts go out to the victims family, driving while impaired or drunk is irresponsible to say the least. Here are some sobering statistics when it comes to alcohol-related injuries and deaths involving drunk driving:

On average someone is killed by a drunk driver every 45 minutes. In 2008, an estimated 11,773 people died in drunk driving related crashes—a decline of 9.8 percent from the 13,041 drunk driving related fatalities of 2007.

About three in every ten Americans will be involved in an alcohol-related crash at some time in their lives.

A first time drunk driving offender on average has driven drunk 87 times prior to being arrested.

In 2002, 2.3% of Americans 18 and older surveyed reported alcohol-impaired driving, including 3% of 18-20 year olds and 4.1% of 21-34 year olds.

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